Yu Jing

Translating dialect with hybrid voices in fiction in the 1930s and 1940s

This paper focuses on the dynamic interaction between dialect translation and dialect writing in China in the 1930s and1940s, with a special reference to three highly profiled translations. Two of the translations make use of regional dialects with very dense, heterogeneous features while the third relies on an “artificial dialect.” These translations incorporate innovative representations of dialect based on dialect writings in Chinese that have traditionally been restricted to “courtesan novels” for prostitution and pornography. They demonstrate the huge potential that could be tapped for dialect literature in terms of theme, characterization and expressiveness. The expansion and elevation of dialect representation via translation was critical for the growth of the new “vernacular Chinese,” still in its infancy at the time. The translators’ agenda was related to their position as cultural “reformists.”

Keywords:  dialect translation, dialect writing, interaction

Biography

Yu Jing is currently a PhD Candidate of Translation Studies in the Chinese and Bilingual Studies Department of Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She has a Master’s Degree in Translation Studies and works as an Associate Professor of English at Hangzhou Dianzi University in China. Her most recent publications in 2014 include an essay on the translation and publication of dialect literature into Chinese from 1929 to 2012 in Translation Quarterly, and two essays on the divergences between postcolonial Translation Studies and empirical Translation Studies in the Journal of Foreign Language.